Carlsson- Contemp Sz

• What were 2 aims of Carlsson‘s study?

  -To improve the dopamine hypothesis

  -To help produce drugs with less negative side effects
• What type of review did he use?

  A paper or literature review
• What data did he use?

  Secondary data from his own research and others research
• What types of research did he use?

  Animal research

  PET scans

  Patients with Parkinson’s/Schizophrenia/ Huntingtons
• In his results, what did he find was higher in patients with Sz. but in some cases it was low?

  Dopamine levels
• What else did he find was low in patients with Sz?

  Glutamate
• What does glutamate act as for dopamine?

  A regulator
• How does glutamate become an accelerator for dopamine?

  Low glutamate= high dopamine
• How does glutamate act as a brake for dopamine?

  releases GABA = low dopamine
• low levels of glutamate in the cerebral cortex lead to what?

  negative symptoms
• low levels of glutamate in the basal ganglia lead to what?

  positive symptoms
• What did Carlsson conclude?

  More research is needed for drug treatment and the role of other neurotransmitters needs looking at
• How is validity a strength of this study?

  he used data from lots of research and triangulated the data to get an overall view.
• How is validity a weakness of the study?

  the study is outdated as it was done over 20 years ago, more research has been done since then.
• How is using secondary data a weakness of the study?

  Cannot be certain of the reliability and validity of the research, and can show bias in what research is used.
• How is the study reductionist?

  Mainly focuses on neurones and ignores other explanations
• How is the study objective and reliable?

  Used data from PET scans which are scientific and give facts rather than leaving it subjective and up for interpretation